North Central Texas Food Waste Collection Networks Roundtable

Monday, July 12, 2021

Breanne Johnson, Environment & Development Planner

Tamara Cook, AICP, Senior Program Manager

Meeting Agenda

1. Welcome and Meeting Purpose

2. Update on NCTCOG Organic Waste to RNG Efforts

3. Presentations from Partner Organizations

• Texas Christian University Food Waste Partnerships

• Dr. Gina Hill, Associate Professor, Texas Christian University

• Fort Worth Residential Food Waste Collection

• Flavia Paulino, Material Management Marketing Analyst, City of Fort Worth

• Grapevine Commercial Food Waste Collection

• Sergio Gonzalez, Business Development Manager, Organix Recycling

4. Discussion of Regional Opportunities

5. Next Regional Meeting TBD

North Central Texas Organic Waste to Fuel Feasibility Study

Regional Study Goals:

• Advance regional efforts to divert food waste, and other organics, from landfills to preserve landfill capacity

• Increase regional renewable energy opportunities

• Evaluate the potential to reduce fleet emissions

• Identify pilot projects and partnerships to advance those projects

Supply Collection Demand LocationsRegional

Study

Evaluate pre- and post-consumer food waste, resulting in a Market

Assessment and evaluation of available

regional feedstocks.

Regional Feedstock Collection Network

Assessment that identifies opportunities and models for regional approaches to

feedstock collection.

Evaluate existing and future demand for

renewable natural gas (RNG) fuel vehicles and other energy

sources.

Identifying regional anaerobic digestion location scenarios using

Food/Flora to Fleet Fuel (F4) Model; documenting energy, emissions, and cost/benefit

analysis of each location scenario.

NCTCOG Regional Study Updates

• North Central Texas Organic Waste to Fuel Feasibility Study

• Award and initiation of work March 15, 2021

• Partnership between NCTCOG, DFW Clean Cities, and University of Texas at Arlington

• Goal: Identify pilots and partnerships to move regional waste-to-energy projects forward

• Contractor RFP issued on July 2nd

• Proposals due by Monday, August 2nd

• Pre-Proposal Conference on Wednesday, July 14th at 9:00 am

• Contractor to initiate work in early Fall

• Participation in RNG Working Group hosted by DOE’s Argonne National Lab

• Past Regional Webinars:

• December 9, 2020 - Food Waste, Anaerobic Digestion, and RNG Regional Efforts Roundtable (recording and presentations available here)

• March 24, 2021 – Organic Waste to RNG Regional Stakeholders Meeting (recording and presentations available here)

NREL Waste-to-Energy Technical Assistance for Local Governments

NCTCOG and our partners have been selected to receive 40 hours of free technical assistance from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on a waste-to-energy project.

Regional partners include:• City of Lewisville

• City of Plano

• DFW International Airport

• Toyota Motor North America

Technical assistance will include a Cost-Benefit Analysis of potential locations for a regional anaerobic digester to transform food waste and biosolids into RNG. More information about the technical assistance at

www.nrel.gov/bioenergy/waste-to-energy-technical-assistance.html.

Meeting Agenda

1. Welcome and Meeting Purpose

2. Update on NCTCOG Organic Waste to RNG Efforts

3. Presentations from Partner Organizations

• Texas Christian University Food Waste Partnerships

• Dr. Gina Hill, Associate Professor, Texas Christian University

• Fort Worth Residential Food Waste Collection

• Flavia Paulino, Material Management Marketing Analyst, City of Fort Worth

• Grapevine Commercial Food Waste Collection

• Sergio Gonzalez, Business Development Manager, Organix Recycling

4. Discussion of Regional Opportunities

5. Next Regional Meeting TBD

For more information, contact Organix Recycling at:866-301-8500 orservice@organixrecycling.com.

Group Discussion

Topics:Feedstocks

StakeholdersCollection networks

End-uses

Today’s Roundtable Presentations Postedhttp://conservenorthtexas.org/event-archive

Group Discussion

Topics:Feedstocks

StakeholdersCollection networks

End-uses

Today’s Roundtable Presentations Postedhttp://conservenorthtexas.org/event-archive

Regional Study

Next Steps

• Initiation of Work with Contractor: Fall 2021

• Establish and Convene Advisory Group with Diverse Stakeholders to Guide Study

• Municipalities

• Wastewater Provider

• School District

• Private Sector

• Industry

• Non-profit

• University (UTA) and others as appropriate

• Next Regional Roundtable –October/November 2021• Presentation ideas?

EPA Anaerobic Digestion Grant Opportunity

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking applications for projects from states, tribes, territories and non-profit organizations to help reduce food loss and waste and divert food waste from landfills by expanding anaerobic digester (AD) capacity in the United States.

All applications must achieve one or more of the following objectives:

• Develop new or expand existing AD capacity for processing food waste.

• Demonstrate solutions and/or approaches for increasing food waste AD utilization that can be replicated by other communities, governments, or other entities.

• Support state, Tribal, and/or local government programs that seek to use AD to increase their food waste diversion rates.

Up to $2 million in total AD funding available.Individual projects may receive $50,000-$200,000 over two years.

Applications are due by October 7, 2021. Additional information is available on Grants.gov, under Funding Opportunity Announcement EPA-OLEM-ORCR-21-02.

For more information on this opportunity, and to join the informational webinar (August 2, 2021, from 2:00-3:00 pm CT) visit the EPA Anaerobic Digestion Funding Opportunity website.

Presentations, upcoming webinars, and training opportunities posted atconservenorthtexas.org

Breanne JohnsonEnvironment and Development Planner bjohnson@nctcog.org817-695-9148

Lori ClarkManager, Transportation Departmentlclark@nctcog.org817-695-9232

Tamara Cook, AICPSenior Program Manager, Environment and Development tcook@nctcog.org817-695-9221

THANK YOU!

Bethany RossAir Quality PlannerNCTCOG/DFWCCbross@nctcog.org817-704-5663

Brian SalvesenEnvironment and Development Planner bsalvesen@nctcog.org817-695-9220

dfwcleancities.org

Soria AdibiSenior Transportation Plannersadibi@nctcog.org817-704-5667